Negley Memorial
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER NEGLEY BORN IN GERMANY IN 1734, OF SWISS ANCESTRY, CAME TO EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA 1739, SERVED IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION, SETTLED ON SITE OF HIGHLAND PARK 1778. DIED NOV. 3, 1809, AND HIS WIFE MARY ANN BURKSTRESSER BORN IN BUCKS...… transcription continues on the marker
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The Story
Alexander Negley was among the German-speaking immigrants of Swiss descent who streamed into eastern Pennsylvania in the 1730s and later pushed west toward the Ohio country. After serving in the War for Independence, he brought his family to the forks of the Ohio in 1778 and took up land along the wooded ridges that are now Pittsburgh's Highland Park — frontier ground when the Revolution was still being fought. His homestead helped anchor one of the early European settlements in what was then the western edge of American reach.
Why it matters
The Negley family's story links the great 18th-century wave of German and Swiss immigration to the settling of the trans-Appalachian frontier, showing how Revolutionary-era pioneers turned wilderness at the forks of the Ohio into what became Pittsburgh.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
To stand at this spot is to stand at the very edge of the young United States as it looked in the late 1700s. The land that is now Pittsburgh's Highland Park was then forested ridgeline near the forks of the Ohio—the strategic meeting of rivers that had already been fought over by empires and would become the gateway to the American West.
The man honored here belonged to one of the great migrations of colonial America. In the 1730s, thousands of German-speaking families, many of Swiss descent, streamed into eastern Pennsylvania, drawn by the promise of land and religious freedom. They cleared farms, built barns, and became the community later generations would call the Pennsylvania Dutch.
But eastern Pennsylvania was only the first stop. As the century wore on, families pushed westward across the Appalachians toward the Ohio country—rough, contested ground that was still frontier when the Revolution was being fought.
People & events
According to this memorial, Alexander Negley was born in Germany in 1734, of Swiss ancestry, and came to eastern Pennsylvania as a small child in 1739. He grew up as the frontier itself was shifting westward, and when the War for Independence came, he served in it.
In 1778—with the Revolution still undecided—he brought his family to the site of what is now Highland Park and took up land along these wooded ridges. That was a bold thing to do. To settle at the western edge of American reach in the middle of a war meant living far from safety, clearing ground by hand, and staking a family's future on wilderness.
The marker records that he died on November 3, 1809, and it names his wife, Mary Ann Burkstresser, born in Bucks County. Together they represent something the history books often skip: the ordinary families whose labor, over a lifetime, turned frontier claims into permanent settlements. A homestead like theirs helped anchor one of the early European communities in this corner of the West.
Its place in the American story
The Negley family's story is a thread that ties two of the great forces of early America together. On one end is the flood of German and Swiss immigration that reshaped colonial Pennsylvania; on the other is the westward push that carried Revolutionary-era pioneers over the mountains and into the Ohio Valley.
The forks of the Ohio were among the most important places in the country's early expansion. Whoever held this ground held the doorway to the interior, and the settlement that grew here became Pittsburgh—a city that would help power America's industrial age.
A family homestead planted in 1778 is a reminder that great cities begin small: with a cabin, a cleared field, and a family willing to bet everything on unimproved land. The immigrant who arrives, serves his new country, and then helps settle its frontier is one of the oldest and truest American stories, and this quiet memorial preserves one real example of it.
If you visit
Highland Park today is a beloved green space in the city of Pittsburgh, full of walking paths, gardens, and quiet corners—so it takes a little imagination to picture it as raw frontier. That contrast is exactly what makes this marker worth seeking out.
Look for the family names on the stone and let the dates sink in: a man born in 1734, a settlement begun in 1778, a life that closed in 1809. Each date is a doorway into a different chapter of the founding era, all bound up in a single household.
If you're exploring Pittsburgh's parks and history, this makes a fine, unhurried stop—a chance to trace the city all the way back to its wooded beginnings. Stand among the trees, glance toward the rivers, and remember that the metropolis around you began as one family's clearing on the edge of the known map.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Alexander Negley
- · Mary Ann Burkstresser Negley
Themes & tags
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